Solitude by Putri Nadhira Saraswati

Analog photography exhibition contributor Tabu volume 1

Bio

My name is Putri Nadhira Saraswati. I am currently taking major in architecture in Bandung. I started photography as a hobby when I was in high school. I just shot what I like, and I find it relaxing for me.

But the process doesn’t just stop there. I love how photographs can take me back to how I feel when I take the shot, and I would like other people to feel it too. So recently, I try to explore photography as a way to express my feeling and tell stories.

Project Description

This actually isn’t a really well-thought-out project. This is more of a spontaneous project. I spent a lot of time alone and thinking at the moment, and the idea just popped up. Unintentionally, I call this project ‘Solitude’.

I believe that people has their own way to find solitude. To take time for ourselves, reconnecting with our own minds, building an atmosphere to recharge our energy. Some people find it in quiet places, some may even find it in crowded places. A morning run, a walk into nature, writing a journal, or starring at buildings. Simple things to simply make us feel better.

Fault Line, by Sophie Barbasch

About

I started studying photography in high school and then got more serious about it during college. After college, I realized I wanted to pursue my MFA.

Grad school helped me a lot in terms of understanding what I was trying to do and say with my work. I feel like I am still processing some of the feedback I got, even though I’ve been out of school for a number of years now.

I have experimented with other media, but I feel like photography comes closest to expressing how I experience the world. Even so, I still think a lot about what images cannot express and how to fill those gaps.

Preferences, preparations, photography equipment

It depends a lot on the project—sometimes, I stage the images and work with a tripod. For other projects, I just shoot hand-held and respond in the moment.

I am using the Mamiya 7 and the Sony mirrorless camera right now. I love film, but digital is very liberating.

Project statement

Artist Statement: Fault Line

Fault Line is a story about my family. The protagonist is my younger cousin Adam. It takes place in Brooklin, Maine, where he lives. I have been working on this project intensively since 2013.

It was then that I went to visit Adam and was overwhelmed by his intelligence, humor, and vulnerability. I couldn’t help but feel connected to him. We understood each other in a way no one else in the family did.

I felt like he was my stand-in, my double. When we started taking pictures, we both wanted to make the same images; I didn’t have to explain anything.

In 2013, I had already been estranged from my father for seven years. I wanted to return to a family base to understand what had happened.

I wanted to make images that expressed moments from the past: moments of conflict, isolation, and despair. I also wanted to express the desire to connect to family and to belong to something.

I chose the surreal landscape of Brooklin, sandwiched between the coast and the dense forest, to begin exploring these fragments from my childhood. I used Adam as my model.

Over the years, I also began to incorporate myself, my brother, my aunt, my cousins, and finally my father, into the images.

Influences and favorite stuff within and outside of photography

At the moment, I am inspired by the Not Surprised project (http://www.not-surprised.org/) as well as Barbara Kruger’s new NYC Metrocard series. I just finished reading The Babysitter at Rest by Jen George, which I loved. My new favorite photo book is Blind Date by Leiko Shiga.